The new almshouse development is nearing completion and should be ready for occupation early next year.

The 21 new homes are grouped in three terraces surrounding a central landscaped green. After much discussion, we have assigned each terrace a name memorialising a local figure who cared for the well-being of Shelford people. Click here to see a plan view of the new development.

Martin Terrace

Great Shelford was amongst the many villages in the area to benefit from the generosity of Lettice Martin. Upon her death in 1562, this wealthy landowner of Chrishall, some 8 miles south of Shelford, left money to found charities for the poor across 36 parishes. In 1890, Great Shelford’s Lettice Martin’s Charity merged with two other local charities to form The Parochial Charities.

Pearson Terrace

In addition to housing, the charity in its early years provided other benefits to those in need, most notably the provision of coal but also nursing aid and equipment. Our records show that between 1893 and 1895 – and soon after its foundation – the Parochial Charities paid for nursing duties provided by Elizabeth Pearson, a widow living in Abberley Wood.

Oliver Terrace

Before the health centre opened in 1980, the village surgery was located on the corner of Tunwells Lane and Station Road. And it was here that Dr Hugh Oliver MBE practised, firstly as a locum in the late 1950s and latterly – from 1976 to 1988 – as a much-loved village GP. In between, he served as Medical Superintendent at the Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Dr Oliver was for many years a trustee of The Parochial Charities, only stepping down in 2014. He died in 2017 aged 87.